Saturday, 12 September 2026

Electric vehicle sales have fallen across the United States this year, and California has not been spared, according to CleanTechnica.

The decline reaches the country's largest EV market. CleanTechnica describes California as by far the main market for electric vehicles in the United States, which makes the state's participation in the drop-off the more consequential part of the trend it reports.

Amazon will put 50 Mercedes-Benz eActros battery-electric semi trucks into service in Germany before the end of 2026, according to Electrek.

The first 26 units have already entered service, drawn from an Amazon order of more than 200 eActros 600 tractors that Electrek describes as the company's largest to date.

Electrek reports the eActros 600 carries a 621 kWh battery pack and a 500 km range, which Amazon is matching to middle-mile duty cycles hauling goods between fulfillment centers and urban areas.

Charging is being built out alongside the fleet. Amazon is installing DC fast chargers with enough power to take the truck batteries from 20% to 80% in just over one hour, per Electrek.

The truck deployment sits inside a broader spending commitment. Amazon is investing more than EUR 1 billion in the further electrification and decarbonization of its European transportation network, of which more than EUR 400 million is dedicated to its German operations, according to Electrek.

"The handover of these vehicles is a milestone for the electrification of our transportation network," said Andreas Marschner, VP of Sustainable Operations at Amazon.

First Bus is rolling out a smart charging system across all 172 charging outlets at its Caledonia depot in Glasgow, up from the 34 outlets covered during an initial trial, electrive reported. The technology is supplied by energy management specialists Optimo Energy.

That trial began in May and was described as successful, according to electrive.

The constraint the system manages is a gap between demand and supply capacity. Caledonia has a potential charging load of 12 MW while operating on a 5 MW grid connection, electrive reported.

The wider deployment also lets First Bus enter energy flexibility markets and sell surplus energy back to the grid, which electrive notes could create an additional revenue stream from infrastructure otherwise used mainly for fleet charging.

BMW is running prototypes of a hydrogen fuel cell SUV that will reach the market in 2028 as the BMW iX5 Hydrogen, according to electrive.

The prototype programme includes trials at BMW's test facility in Aschheim near Munich, electrive reported. The company has given its first insights into that testing.

BMW is targeting a range of 750 km, with acceleration of under five seconds from 0 to 100 km/h, according to electrive.

The carmaker received EUR 273 million from the German federal government and the Free State of Bavaria through the HyPowerDrive project, covering development and industrialisation of a fuel cell electric powertrain for passenger cars, including the 2028 iX5 Hydrogen.

Work on industrialisation and future series production of the hydrogen fuel cell system is under way at the engine plant in Steyr, Austria, electrive reported.

An earlier test fleet of 100 converted fourth-generation X5 units fitted with fuel cells was built in Spartanburg, USA.

Audi has begun production of the A2 e-tron at its Ingolstadt plant, with deliveries due in December and a starting price of EUR 38,200, according to electrive. The compact battery-electric model is built on the updated Modular E-Drive Toolkit (MEB+) from the Volkswagen Group.

Audi says it cut development time on the project by 21 months against previous vehicle programmes, alongside a reduced range of variants, lower complexity and a higher degree of automation, electrive reported.

The carmaker reused more than 1,200 manufacturing components already deployed on other Audi models, including robot welding tongs and around 250 robots, according to electrive.

Separately, plug-in vehicle sales in China reached 1,643,000 units in August, up 17.8% year-on-year, according to figures from CAAM cited by electrive. The Chinese category covers battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids across both passenger cars and commercial vehicles.

Battery-electric models carried the growth. BEV sales hit 1,161,000 units, a 27.8% year-on-year increase and an 8.3% rise month-on-month, marking a new annual high, electrive reported. Plug-in hybrid volumes moved the other way, at 482,000 units, down 0.9% year-on-year.

Exports were the standout line. Shipments of plug-in vehicles reached 526,000 units in August, the second-best monthly result ever after July, and 130% above the August 2025 level, according to electrive. Cumulative NEV exports over the first eight months of the year stood at 3.44 million units on CAAM statistics, up 124% on the same period a year earlier.

China's newest five-year development plan for plugin vehicles sets a sales target of 70% by 2030, according to CleanTechnica.

CleanTechnica describes the document as the country's 15th such plan, and it refers to the vehicles it covers as "new energy vehicles".

Plugin sales hit 61% of the Chinese market in August, according to CleanTechnica.

Cagayan State University has opened its locally developed electric vehicle prototypes to commercial investors in the Philippines, according to CleanTechnica.

CleanTechnica describes the move as a practical step toward expanding domestic manufacturing and clean transportation in the country.

The prototypes were shown by the university's ElectroMobility Research and Development Center at the Sustainability Expo 2026 in Manila, CleanTechnica reported.

InstaVolt has joined the Shell Card network, opening more than 4,250 of the UK fast-charging operator's chargers at over 1,200 locations to fleet operators and drivers, electrive reported.

Shell Card customers can now access and pay for charging at InstaVolt hubs under what the charge point operator described as a "single fleet mobility solution", according to electrive. The arrangement covers the operator's UK network.

Delvin Lane, Chief Executive Officer of InstaVolt, said joining the Shell Card network makes the charging experience easier to access and gives fleet operators a simpler way to manage charging, electrive reported.

Shell has kept its Shell Card and fleet solutions business while restructuring its wider charging operation, and is expanding a commercial charging network that combines public, private and third-party infrastructure, according to electrive.

Tesla has published performance figures for the European version of its Semi electric truck ahead of IAA Transportation, according to electrive.

The truck will accept megawatt charging at up to 800 kW DC, which electrive reports is enough to take the battery to 60 per cent in half an hour.

Tesla puts the kerb weight below 9.1 tonnes and the electric power take-off at up to 25 kW, two figures released from the specification sheet ahead of the show, electrive reported.

The range and consumption numbers rest on a defined test case: a gross train weight of 40 tonnes, a steady 80 km/h and 20 degrees Celsius on flat road, per electrive. Tesla presents those as estimates rather than measured results.

Customer deliveries to fleets across Europe are set to begin in 2027, according to Tesla's statement cited by electrive.

To cover maintenance, the company plans a network of Semi Service Centres alongside licensed workshops, electrive reported.

Volvo's new EC500 Electric excavator, a 50-ton class machine, plugs directly into grid power through a 35 m cable reel, allowing round-the-clock operation without recharging, according to Electrek.

The machine also carries an on-board high-voltage battery, which Electrek reports is good for between two and three hours of continuous use. The battery-electric system is designed to adapt to various grid conditions on a 400V base, per Electrek.

The first EC500 Electric in customer hands is being worked in Norway across quarrying, road building, and tunneling, Electrek reported.

Volvo plans to launch the production version in Spring 2027, according to Electrek.

Wallbox Chargers is closing its charging-equipment factory in Arlington, Texas, a site launched in autumn 2022 and designed at opening to build 250,000 charging units per year, according to electrive.

The company had expanded by acquisition before the shutdown. It bought most of the operating assets of insolvent German wallbox manufacturer ABL in 2023 for around EUR 15 million, electrive reported.

Li Auto is gradually moving its model range away from CATL cells to in-house designed batteries manufactured by Sunwoda, according to electrive. The switch reduces the automaker's reliance on a supplier that, as recently as April, counted Li Auto among its four largest customers.

The in-house cells are already fitted in the L8, L6 and i8, with electrive reporting that rollout to further series is expected to widen in the fourth quarter.

At the start of September, Li Auto announced a 2.65 billion yuan investment in Sunwoda EVB, equivalent to about USD 390 million. Counting existing indirect holdings, the stake will rise to 11.17%, making Li Auto the second-largest shareholder in the cell manufacturer, per electrive.

For the Mega Home electric van, Li Auto says stocks of the previously used 5C ternary cells from CATL are nearly depleted, and new orders will be filled with its own 5C cells, with first vehicles expected in November.

The i6 is scheduled to appear at the Paris Motor Show in October, badged as the Li 6 for Europe, with sales beginning in the fourth quarter.